As fall sports start to kick off, I was reminded of a trip I took last year to my alma mater, Virginia Tech, to speak at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute. While there, I learned some fascinating things about keeping people safe.
But these lessons didn’t come in discussions about air bags and car crashes. They came as I visited the school’s Helmet Ratings research lab, where experts in medicine and engineering assess and rate football and hockey helmets. They also develop data-driven insights into how head injuries can be reduced in both frequency and severity.
Their work is critical in a time when, with athletes as committed as ever, we are learning more and more about the effect of playing these sports. These new insights – which address not just short-term injuries but also long-term behavior – need to be considered alongside a fundamental truth: There is simply nothing more important in life than having a brain that is functioning at its highest level.
A study released last month that examined the brains of more than 200 men who played football found evidence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative disease tied to repetitive head trauma, in 87% of the cases. The vast majority of those who had CTE had a history of behavioral or mood disorders and cognitive problems; many had signs of dementia.
A study from 2014, meanwhile, showed how traumatic brain injuries substantially increase the likelihood of schizophrenia, depression and bipolar disorder later in life. In short, head injuries can cause mental illness.
These are challenging times for athletes, and for parents who must balance their children’s wishes against the risks of contact sports. The National Safety Council recently released its State of Safety Report, which looked at how states protect children from sports-related concussions. All but seven states were rated as “on track” or “developing” in having appropriate policies in place, but in a nation where a child is treated for a sports-related concussion every three minutes, there is still more to be done.
The Helmet Ratings lab has published reports not only on the effectiveness of helmets, but also on the benefits of limiting contact in practices to reduce the probability of concussions. Additionally, the lab is expanding its research from just football and hockey helmets to include bicycle and soccer head gear.
Thomas Edison once said, “The chief function of the body is to carry the brain around,” so it makes sense that we work to keep the brain as safe and as functional as possible.
The work at Virginia Tech, the suggestions from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the recommendations from NSC relating to youth sports-related concussions, like other campaigns active today, all follow a fundamental theme: through research, advocacy and legislation we can, and we must, do all we can to protect ourselves and our children from head injuries.